The sky ship
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The sky ship |
| Original title | Sky kibet |
 | |
| Country of production | Denmark |
| original language | Danish |
| Publishing year | 1918 |
| length | 6 acts, 2169 m, at 20 fps 95 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Holger-Madsen |
| script | Sophus Michaëlis |
| production | Nordisk film |
| music | Alexander Schirmann |
| camera |
Louis Larsen , Frederik Fuglsang |
| occupation | |
| |
The sky ship ( Danish : Himmelskibet = sky ship , English : A Trip to Mars ) is a Danish science fiction film from 1918 and is considered to be one of the first feature films to address space travel . Its pacifist message was in the context of World War I , which was in its final phase at the time of production in the summer of 1918.
action
Professor Planetarius designed the Excelsior spaceship . His son Avanti Planetarius and eight other crew members take it to Mars from Copenhagen . The space flight is very monotonous; there is alcohol abuse and mutiny.
Finally the Excelsior lands safely on the neighboring planet. The atmosphere of Mars is breathable, so space travelers can move outside the spacecraft without breathing equipment. They armed themselves heavily for fear of aggressive Martians. However, you will encounter humanoid Martians who are pacifists and vegetarians. The Martians long ago abolished war and established a social order in which overpopulation is prevented through family planning.
Avanti wants to demonstrate to the Martians how animals are hunted on earth and shoots a bird with a pistol. This act is considered a sacrilege by the Martians and Avanti is forced by the Prince of Wisdom to reflect on his actions in the temple of meditation. Avanti realizes his injustice and falls in love with Marya, the daughter of the Prince of Wisdom. His love is reciprocated and both return to earth with the crew to propagate the Martians' message of peace.
production
Before and during World War I, Denmark was one of the most important film-producing countries, and its productions were also widely distributed in Germany . The main actor Gunnar Tolnaes was extremely popular in Germany through films such as The Maharaja's Favorite Wife (1917); Lilly Jacobson also played in this "colossal painting", according to the German press.
The outdoor shots took place in a quarry south of Copenhagen. After two advertisements in the Oldenburger Nachrichten for city and country on October 4 and 10, 1918, the film was also shown in the Wall-Lichtspiele there ; allegedly its production cost three million marks . The advertisement from October 10th asked to attend the afternoon performances as well, because the “… rush in the evening was too big”. The film was shot with an elaborate trick technique and is now regarded as the forerunner of Fritz Lang's Frau im Mond .
The pacifist plot bears strong resemblance to Albert Daiber's two-volume utopian novel Die Weltensegler , which appeared in Stuttgart in 1910 ( Three Years on Mars ) and 1914 ( From Mars to Earth ) and in which a group of Tübingen professors on Mars also did one finds a peaceful and democratic world that should serve as a political and cultural counter-model to the German Empire.
Film music
The composer and cinema bandmaster Alexander Schirmann wrote the “Spring dance” for the film with the beginning of the song “A flower blooms in the dark grove”, which was published in 1918 by CM Roehr in Berlin.
Lore
The scenario of the film was also published in Germany in 1926 as a film novel . In 2006 the film was extensively restored by Det Danske Filminstitut and is now also available as a DVD edition with Danish and English subtitles.
Reviews
“Holger Madsen's HIMMELSKIBET is one of the very early, large-scale science fiction films. Ole Olsen, producer and source of ideas, invested a fortune in the production for the times ... The climax, the arrival and greeting of the sky ship on Mars, anticipates the sure feeling for great effects and image composition of Fritz Lang in the recording and staging ... "
"While in most of the later film encounters with extraterrestrials these turn out to be monsters and monsters ... humanity in the SKY SHIP is supposed to be saved by the purity and love of the Martians ... Today he seems very pathetic, very naive and a bit ridiculous (already from the technical and scientific here!), but as a pioneer it is still of great importance in this genre. "
Re-performances
In the municipal »Filmhauskino« in Nuremberg, “Das Himmelsschiff” was shown on November 13, 2009 at 7.15 pm. On the piano, Dr. D. Meyer.
The Filmmuseum Potsdam showed the film in its silent film symposium "SILENCE FICTION" on February 13, 2016 at 7 pm. Susanne Schaak accompanied them on the historic Welte cinema organ.
literature
- Albert Daiber: Die Weltensegler , Stuttgart 1910/1914, Reprint Lüneburg (Dieter von Reeken Verlag) 2004.
- Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 2000 films from 1902 to today , 7th edition Munich (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag) 1997, vol. 1, p. 426f. ISBN 3-453-11860-X
- Hofmeister's musical-literary monthly report on new music, musical writings and images. Published by Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig 1918
- Sophus Michaelis: The sky ship , Berlin 1926, new edition Lüneburg (Dieter von Reeken-Verlag) 2016
- Carl Friedrich Whistling, Adolf Moritz Hofmeister (eds.): Hofmeister's handbook of music literature, volume 15. Verlag F. Hofmeister, [1914], page 401.
- Friedrich von Zglinicki: The way of the film. History of cinematography and its predecessors. Berlin, Rembrandt Verlag 1956.
- Rainer Rother / Annika Schaefer (eds.): Future Imperfect. Science • Fiction • Film , Berlin (Bertz + Fischer) 2017. ISBN 978-3-86505-249-0
Web links
- A Trip to Mars in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The sky ship at The German Early Cinema Database
Illustrations
- Full film version on youtube.com
- The Excelsior over Copenhagen
- Captain Planetaros on board the Excelsior , colored still photo (probably made from DVD)
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Zglinicki, p. 290 and Hofmeister's musical-literary monthly report, January 1918, p. 71: “Schirmann, Alexander: Frühlingsreigen. Foreplay u. Song from the movie 'The Sky Ship' f. Salon orchestra. 8 °. Berlin. (Roehr) M 2.50 n. "And p. 174:" Schirmann, Alexander: Spring dance: A flower blooms in the dark grove 'from the film' The sky ship 'f. 1 singing, m. Puffs. Berlin, Roehr M 1.80 n. "
- ↑ cf. Tamara Dotter Weich at nordbayern.de , November 30, 2009
- ↑ cf. potsdam.de
- ↑ at archive.org